What a legend: Mum’s secret surprise visit across ditch
As she woke on her 36th birthday, Christi Britton had a sneaking thought her mother might fly in from Australia for a visit.
It was April 19, the day the trans-Tasman travel bubble opened, and her mind turned to a long-awaited reunion.
That morning, at her Feilding home, Britton received a call from her Melbourne-based mother Suzette Van Heerden, wishing her happy birthday. And that was it.
Britton kept thinking something was up. Normally she received calls throughout the day to see how she was, but not this birthday.
As it happened, Van Heerden had been calling from Melbourne Airport, trying her best to muffle the phone when loud-speaker announcements were made so not to give her game up, that she was on her way for a surprise hello.
She was on the first flight from Melbourne to Wellington, having booked as soon as she could when the bubble was announced. Arriving in Wellington, Van Heerden was faced with another problem: cameras. TV crews and newspaper photographers were there recording joyous reunions, but Van Heerden couldn’t risk getting snapped so grabbed her luggage and jumped in an Uber.
The first surprise was for her son Dawie Bezuidenhout, who lives in Wellington with his son, David-Lee, 6, and wife Letitia.
Letitia was in on the plan and even kept it from Britton when visiting Feilding the weekend before. After a night in Wellington, it was time for a drive north and the birthday surprise, delayed by a day.
To add to her cover story, Van Heerden rang Britton and said she was at her doctor in Melbourne with a hand complaint.
Britton was persuaded to go to a cafe in Bulls for a coffee by her husband Warren, which she thought strange. She walked in and out of the bathroom area came Mum, with David-Lee, for an emotional, tear-filled embrace.
The pair were momentarily lost for words as they held each other for the first time since December, 2019. ‘‘You don’t know what to do. Do you touch? Do you say thank you?,’’ Britton said.
The mother and daughter usually see each other every December and April, but the coronavirus crisis cancelled Britton’s trip to Australia in April last year and since then all contact has been over Messenger, WhatsApp and other remote means.
The family are close, and spending time together – Dawie, Letitia and David-Lee Bezuidenhout came up from Wellington for a few days too – has meant a lot, they say.
Van Heerden returns to Melbourne today.